Text: Isaiah 43:1-2a
You’ve heard it said. “The quality of her life just isn’t what it used to be.” We tend to judge the value of someone’s life based upon what he or she can or cannot do. Thus, we assign more value to the Olympic athlete and less to the feeble grandma, more value to the healthy and less to the sick, more value to the born and less to those not yet born. But the true value of human life does not depend upon what we can or cannot do. The true value of human life comes from God. So based on God’s Word, let’s answer the question, “What has God done that gives value to human life?”
Created by God’s Hand
The first answer is that God is the creator of life. “The LORD created Jacob and formed Israel.” Here God is talking about his people as a nation, but he uses language that reflects what he does individually as well. Let’s use this verse as a springboard to verses that show the value God’s creative hands give to human life.
Read Genesis 1:26-27. Nowhere will you find such value and dignity given to anything else that God created. Only human beings were created in God’s image. They were perfectly holy and blessed. They had a perfect knowledge of God and his will. They were immortal. They were given rule over everything else God made. Read Psalm 8 where David praises God for the value he gives to human beings creating them just a little lower than himself. To be sure, sin quickly shatters this image in Genesis 3. Nevertheless, because of this original, lofty position, Scripture still gives value to human life. (See Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9.)
Read Genesis 2:7, 22. Here we have a close look at the creation of that first man and woman. The man was “formed” by the hands of God and God himself “blew the breath of life into his nostrils.” You will not find this kind of intimate involvement in any of the other creatures that God made. He took special care creating Adam. He did so with Eve as well. He “formed” her from Adam’s rib. The word here in the original is a different word than used in 2:7. It literally means “to build.” Again, the use of God’s hands is implied. God was very intimately involved in the creation of the first humans giving special value to human life.
Read Genesis 1:28. God told Adam and Eve to “be fertile, increase in number, fill the earth.” God now set in motion a biological process for procreation. But God’s intimate involvement in the creation of human life did not cease. Psalm 139:13-14, for example, tells us that God is at work in this biological process and he knit us together inside our mothers. We know of course that God does not have tiny little knitting needles that he uses inside a uterus. But what is pictured is his hands-on involvement in the creation of every human life. We could all have a little tag on the back of our necks that reads, “Hand-Made by God.” That gives human life value.
Reclaimed by God’s Hand
Now let’s go back to our Isaiah 43 passage for another answer to what God has done that gives value to human life. Verse 1 continues, “Do not be afraid, because I have reclaimed you.” God’s people of old had plenty to fear. They had forsaken God and turned to pagan idols. God had every right to punish them. We have plenty to fear as well. Our sin separates us from God. He has every right to punish us. But God loved what he made with his hands so much that instead of punishing us, he decided to buy us back, to reclaim us from our lost condition. We do not have to be afraid!
Read Hebrews 2:14. To reclaim us, God sent his Son Jesus to take on human flesh. This happened the moment Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary (see Luke 1:26-38). The reclaiming process had to start here because we were sinful from the moment of our conception (see Psalm 51:5). It’s beyond imagination! The creator of the universe humbles himself to become a speck of an embryo in the fallopian tube of a young woman! How great is God’s love for human life!
Read 1 Corinthians 6:20. There was more involved in this reclamation project than just becoming human. On the cross Jesus paid the price we owed because of our sins. God gave him the punishment we deserved. The awful price for the forgiveness of our sins and the eternal salvation of our souls was the suffering and death of Jesus. The hands that knit you together in your mother’s womb stretched out on a cross and bled to reclaim you. What value this gives to your life, to every human life-bought with a price!
It can be said, then, that every human life has value because every human life is a life created by God and every human life is a life for whom Jesus suffered and died.
Held by God’s Hand
But there is more that God does that gives value to life. Go back to Isaiah 43:1. God continues, “I have called you by name; you are mine.” Then at the beginning of verse 2, “When you go through the sea, I am with you.” The God who created you and reclaimed you now calls you to be his own. God the Holy Spirit, working through the Word, calls people to repentance and faith (see Romans 10:17). A special means through which the Spirit does this is baptism (see Acts 2:38, Galatians 3:26-27). Once God claims you as his own, he promises never to forsake you. That doesn’t mean troubled times will vanish. It means God is with you to get you through them. The sea was a picture of trouble and turmoil to the ancient people. It was comforting for them to know that God was with them no matter what “sea” of trouble they might encounter.
Read Isaiah 42:6. Here is a great picture of God’s relationship with those whom he has created, redeemed, and called. He holds you by the hand! The picture is not you trying to hold onto God’s hand. Sometimes we are weak and too faithless to hold onto God. But the God who calls you doesn’t demand, “Hold onto me or else.” He promises, “I will take hold of your hand.” What comfort and hope this is! As Jesus said about those in his hands, “No one will tear them away from me” (John 10:28). What great value this gives to those called by God. He never leaves them. He holds them by the hand.
What has God done that gives value to human life? He created us with his hands. He redeemed us with his hands. He holds us by the hand. God doesn’t need any other criteria to value life. It doesn’t matter to him if you are young or old, fit or feeble, born or not yet born. He gives value to life in all stages of development and in all conditions. Since God gives value to life, all life has value.